A WOMAN from Trowbridge at the centre of a ground-breaking legal battle will have to wait until next year to find out if she can try to have the child she desperately wants.

Natallie Evans, 30, is using human rights legislation to challenge a law that means she cannot use six frozen embryos created with her ex-fianc, Howard Johnston, 25, without his permission.

The first hearing in the case was held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday.

Miss Evans' solicitor, Muiris Lyons of Withy King, said: "The final hearing will take place some time in the new year, at a date to be announced.

"In the meantime, it has been agreed that the embryos at the centre of the dispute will remain in storage while the parties prepare for the final hearing."

The battle is over the future of six embryos currently in storage at the Assisted Conception Clinic in Bath.

They were created after Miss Evans found out she was suffering from ovarian cancer.

The treatment for the disease left her infertile and the embryos are her last chance to have a child of her own.

She was devastated when, in May this year, she received a letter from the clinic informing her that Mr Johnston had withdrawn his permission for the embryos to be used.

She said: "I so want a baby and to have that taken away from you is heartbreaking.

"To be told I had cancer and then to be told I couldn't have children was devastating. I felt numb, and now this."

Although Mr Johnston signed documents at the clinic to allow the embryos to be used in the event of his death or mental incapacity, there was no provision for what would happen if the couple split up.

In the first case of its kind, lawyers are expected to argue that the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which provides that embryos must be destroyed if either party withdraws consent, breaches human rights.

Mr Lyons said: "We shall argue in court that the deed has been done. Mr Johnston consented to these embryos being created."

Mr Lyons will argue that if a child is conceived naturally the father has no legal right to decide the future of the embryo and it should be no different with embryos created outside the body.

Miss Evans is joined in her fight by Lorraine Hadley, 37, of the West Midlands, who wants to use embryos created with her ex-husband.